The Political Facts and Era You Might Never Have Known About Senator Peter Nwaoboshi

 The Political Facts and Era You Might Never Have Known About Senator Peter Nwaoboshi

By Emeka Esogbue

Senator Peter Onyeluka Nwaoboshi hailed from Isieke clan of Umuekea Quarters, Ibusa, in Delta State. Isieke is a kindred umbrella of closely related families and is widely renowned for its remarkable human resource capacity within Ibusa. The clan has produced distinguished personalities across professions, including Prof. Augustine Esogbue, the renowned physicist with NASA (now emeritus); Chief Chike Chigbue, one of Nigeria’s youngest Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN); members of the Justice Chigbue family; notable accounting professionals

, among many others.

Despite his prominence in modern partisan politics, Senator Nwaoboshi emerged from a family deeply rooted in Ibusa culture and tradition. His father was an Obi-titled man, and Senator Nwaoboshi himself was not only an Alor title holder but also a member of Ogbuu, a respected traditional institution reserved for Ibusa men who have fully fulfilled the community’s cultural rites. This cultural depth reflects the broader Ibusa ethos, as the people are widely known for their enthusiasm for tradition and communal identity.

Politically, Senator Nwaoboshi holds a unique place in Ibusa and Anioma history. He was the second Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria produced by the Ibusa community, making Ibusa the only Anioma community to have produced two senators. Given the town’s long-acknowledged intellectual and civic capital, this distinction is both notable and unsurprising.

Nwaoboshi was widely recognised as a long-serving and influential figure in Delta State politics, commanding respect across party lines and often described as a strategist and experienced political voice in both the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and later the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, his political history goes far beyond these later affiliations.

His political journey predated the birth of the PDP and Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. Senator Nwaoboshi’s early political formation began during the Second Republic, within the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN), a major progressive party of the late 1970s and early 1980s. During this period, he was politically active in the old Bendel State, which later became Delta and Edo States.

Within the UPN structure, Nwaoboshi worked in the state youth wing and the party’s political secretariat, gaining grassroots experience in organization, mobilization, and party administration. Crucially, he benefited from the mentorship of Senator Nosike Ikpo, a key political figure of the era. This mentorship helped shape Nwaoboshi’s early political discipline and ideological grounding before his later national prominence.

In the Fourth Republic, Nwaoboshi emerged as a dominant force in the PDP, serving two terms as Delta State PDP Chairman in 2008 and 2012. From 2015 to 2023, he represented Delta North Senatorial District in the National Assembly—first under the PDP and later under the APC following his defection in 2021.

Taken together, Senator Nwaoboshi’s political career spanned three major political traditions in Nigeria:

Second Republic: Active participation in the UPN, under the mentorship of Senator Nosike Ikpo

1999–2014: Rise as a key PDP organizer and state chairman

2015–2023: Service as Senator for Delta North, first under PDP and later APC

One pivotal moment that shaped both Ibusa’s political consciousness and Nwaoboshi’s formative years was the historic visit of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to Ibusa in the late 1970s during the Second Republic. Awolowo was hosted at the Ibusa Town Hall, Umuisagba, as part of his strategic effort to consolidate UPN influence beyond the Yoruba Southwest.

At the time, Ibusa had become politically significant due to its educated elite, strong trading networks, strategic location between Asaba and Onitsha, and a rapidly growing youth political consciousness. The visit was largely facilitated by UPN stalwarts in Anioma, with Senator Nosike Ikpo playing a prominent role. Younger political actors including Peter Nwaoboshi in his formative years were actively involved in mobilization, logistics, and crowd organization. Though this was long before Nwaoboshi’s later rise, it firmly placed him within the Awolowo tradition of grassroots, ideology-driven politics.

The gathering drew people from Ibusa, Okpanam, Asaba, Ogwashi-Uku, and surrounding towns. In his address, Chief Awolowo spoke passionately on education as the foundation of liberation, true federalism, minority inclusion, and the need for Midwestern communities to resist the politics of patronage.

Many elders still recall the defining moment when Awolowo’s hand was raised inside the Ibusa Town Hall as he declared in his now-famous Ibusa speech:

“A people are truly free when knowledge is made available to all.”

That visit helped shape Ibusa’s political identity, fostering a reputation for issue-based politics, respect for intellectual leadership, and openness to ideological debate. It also influenced generations of politicians many of whom later found expression in the PDP, NPP, or APC including Senator Nwaoboshi himself.

May the soul of Senator Peter Onyeluka Nwaoboshi rest in perfect peace.